Jamaican Patois - Sociolinguistic Variation

Sociolinguistic Variation

Jamaican Patois is a creole language that exhibits a gradation between more conservative creole forms and forms virtually identical to Standard English (i.e. metropolitan Standard English). This situation came about with contact between speakers of a number of Niger–Congo languages and various dialects of English, the latter of which were all perceived as prestigious and the use of which carried socio-economic rewards. The span of a speaker's command of the continuum generally corresponds to the variety of social situations in which he situates himself.